A Global Fresh Produce Fiesta on The Chefs’ Forum Demo Stage at The London Produce Show 2019!
For the sixth year running, The Chefs’ Forum Demo Stage hosted a series of fabulous cookery demonstrations celebrating fresh produce from some of the best chefs in the country at The London Produce Show on Thursday (6) June.
At the best London Produce Show yet, accomplished chef demo compere, International Restaurant Consultant and Chefs’ Forum Committee Member, Peter Gorton introduced each chef and compared while they cooked their dish. Show visitors and members of the foodie media were treated to a ’round the world trip of culinary excellence’ from top London chefs as well as a guest appearance by American TV chef Amanda Freitag who demonstrated a perfect Waldorf Salad.
Students from University of West London and West London College helped the guest chefs both back and front of house in preparation and serving of samples to an audience of foodie glitterati.
Winner, Ping Coombes opened the show with some fantastic Malaysian cuisine. The audience loved her authentic dishes and will no doubt be heading over to her new 4th Floor restaurant in London’s iconic Selfridges, Ping Pan Asian where Ping offers authentic Malaysian cuisine.
The chefs were all very proud to wear customised chef jackets sponsored by Oliver Harvey, each bearing the chef’s name and The London Produce Show logo.
The demonstrations lead the International exhibition in #CelebratingFRESH by showcasing how many products on the show floor are being used by some of the leading chefs in the UK within a food service environment.
Four more chefs from all over the UK took to the stage to showcase their dishes incorporating fresh produce from the show. Masterchef: The Professionals winner and Le Cordon Bleu Mentor, Luciana Berry showcased famous Brazilian signature dishes and ingredients from Abrafrutas & Frutas do Brasil which went down a storm with the foodie audience.
Youngest UK Michelin-starred Head Chef, Tom Booton of The Westbury (Mayfair) then wowed the audience with opulent oysters, perfect pork loin and a citrus cream dessert – A veritable three course meal was served to the awe-struck (yet extremely lucky) guests.
Peter Gorton then followed Tom, creating beautiful roses with the finest avocados from ‘The Avocado Company’. He halved, stoned and sliced the avocados into a dainty column then rolled them into a perfect rose to accompany freshly seared steak and delicious asparagus.
Vegan chef Enzo de Marino concluded the day with a fascinating media masterclass, showcasing the versatility of papaya in a salad, a mojito, breaded papaya and papaya risotto with prosecco and chives.
Enzo said
“As development chef for Wealmoor, I was honoured to be asked to present the Media Masterclass to members of the foodie press at such a prestigious show. It was a lovely experience to talk about vegan food, fabulous papaya and meet a whole range of great chefs both the guest demo chefs as well as Paul Bates and his team at the Grosvenor House Hotel.”
Grosvenor House, a JW Marriott Hotel was the stunning venue in London’s Mayfair that saw over 1600 fresh produce aficionados and chefs flood into the busy show to enjoy a ‘vegfest’ of pandemic proportions.
The attendee list covered ev
ery continent of the world and exhibitors showcased produce from every category. A fantastic range of UK and international produce buyers from the retail, foodservice and wholesale sectors were given unrivalled access to the deliberately limited number of exhibitors, both during the exhibition and at a series of equally well-attended networking occasions.
Educational seminars and workshops, chef demonstrations, an extensivestudent programme and tours to industry locations in and around London provided further opportunities to meet, share and learn from some of the world’s fresh produce thought and practice leaders.
The chef demonstrations were organised by The Chefs’ Forum and took place on our fabulous purpose-built demo stage showcasing Locher , Falcon Foodservice convection oven and a Williams Refrigeration under counter fridge.
The show was an ideal opportunity to involve Chefs’ Forum members and give them a chance to demonstrate their respective cooking styles and menus whilst ‘Celebrating Fresh’, the main ethos of The London Produce Show – many chefs also attended as guests to watch their peers on stage.
Private chef, Andy Dennehy of Bath travelled to London to see the show, he said
“Today was an excellent opportunity to learn more about the provenance of the fruit and vegetables I use every day. It was great to meet the growers and wholesalers and the quality of the produce was out of this world. I really enjoyed Enzo’s vegan demo as we are often being asked to think outside the box in creating vegan menus. I cooked a full-vegan menu for a hen party this week as the hen was vegan – it was very informative and inspirational.”
The Chefs’ Forum demo stage is available for hire for any events and Chefs’ Forum members interested in performing paid cookery demonstrations should register their interest with us as we are approached by shows for demo chefs on a regular basis.
If you are interested in hiring the demo stage complete with audio visual equipment and crew for your fabulous foodie event, please contact Catherine Farinha for further information 07585 700030 or email catherine@redcherry.uk.com
